Gary fire started in empty room

The source of a house fire that killed six people in Gary was traced to an empty bedroom, most likely caused by a cigarette or smoldering match left unattended, fire officials said Thursday.

A 7-year-old boy, the only survivor of five children in the Wednesday fire, was in critical but stable condition at University of Chicago Hospitals on Thursday.

As Eric Andrew's mother watched over him at the hospital, relatives made funeral arrangements for Kenneth Andrews, 43, and his sons, Andre, 12, Brandon, 10, Darriontae, 9, and for his girlfriend, Laura Smith, 37, and her son, Malik Smith, 1.

The fire started early Wednesday in an unoccupied bedroom on the west side of the home, according to Michael Gregory, chief inspector for the Gary Fire Department. Investigators said that there was a working smoke detector without batteries.

Two victims were found in another bedroom in the southwest corner of the home, and two more were in a bedroom on the southeast corner, Gregory said.

Brandon was airlifted to a Chicago hospital but died from smoke inhalation.

A fifth victim, Laura Smith, was found in the living room, not far from where Eric was snatched from the flames and smoke by neighbors who heard cries for help.

Mary Andrews, 50, a second cousin to Kenneth, smashed through a window to escape and call for help. She was in good condition at a Gary hospital.

Everyone but she and Laura Smith was asleep by midnight, she said. Three hours later, Mary Andrews woke to the sound of children coughing, she said.

"I thought I was dreaming because I couldn't see anything, not the hand in front of my face," she said. "It got hotter as I walked to the back of the house, so I went to the window and I hit, hit, hit and fell with my head going out the window first."

A candlelight vigil was planned outside the burnt-out home that backs up to the South Shore train line in Gary's Brunswick neighborhood, a place that locals call "the Bronx."